Measuring the economic benefits from the inland fishery management in South Sumatra, Indonesisa: A bioeconomic approach

The issue of deriving benefits from the fishery resource on a sustainable basis exists in most developing countries. This tends to create a major problem confronting both biologists and economists in managing the fishery. In respose to this issue, this paper explains one possible method to measure the economic benefits from the inland fishery managment. To model the fishery, a bieconomic approach is applied, and the potential applicability of the model in measuring economic benefits is discussed. Surplus production models developed by Schaefer (1954) and Fox (1970) are used. The biological model for the inland fishery starts with the assumption of zero rate of change in biomass all year and of an exact index of relative abundance. Economic models are developed by describing costs-returns of the fishery. Baised on the incorporated biological and economic models, the current fishery managment policy is evaluated and possible economic benefits are assessed.